To Brisbane

Awake early

I was off-line for a few days, I'm backdating this and the next couple. Needed to be at the airport by 8AM this morning, so I decided I should arrive by 7:30; working back from that I booked a taxi for 6:45 and set the alarm for 6AM. Packed the night before, realised that I only filled a small portion of my back-pack, so I decided I could squeeze everything I needed into my day pack ... Great, nothing to check in. In the morning I was ready to go at 6:30, so I turned the computers, microwave, and video stack off, attempted to drown the pot-plants and stepped outside at 6:35. I just lit a cigarette and my taxi arrived 10 minutes early. While I was finishing the smoke a second taxi arrived. I can only assume that they had a hiccup & despatched two cabs. Had a dream run through and was in the check-in line by just after 7AM. Grrrrrrrr, I would have liked a bit more sleep, but never mind.

Killing time

What's to do at airports? One of the great dilemmas of the modern age. I ended up having breakfast at Macdonalds and wandering around aimlessly. Then I went through customs. I'm always cautious about what I take so, as usual, my pack went through the X-Ray without a hitch. One small amusement of the morning was watching the man at the next inspection station trying to explain the large pair of sissors he was carrying. Turkey. The flight was uneventful as was the drive down to Seaworld.

Lunch

We arrived at Seaworld early and our rooms weren't yet ready. We had already planned to go off and get lunch. Unfortunately Kathy and her passengers didn't arrive, and didn't arrive, and didn't arrive. It seems she took the scenic route. Smile. Eventually we were all there and took off to Southport for Fisherman's Wharf Bar/Restaurant. Foolishly I ordered the tempura whiting - definitely not tempura as I know it. It would be good old kiwi fish & chips, except the wedges were obviously cooked in oil that was too cold. Other wedges we had on the trip were much the same, I wonder if that's the ocker way of doing chips?

Evening

The conference started with a brief greeting to the customers and then it was onto the tall ship for a cruise. Despite having to play at hosting the customers, it was a nice little cruise & I quite enjoyed myself, but by the time it finished I was getting pretty tired. It may have only been 7:30PM local time, but it was 10:30 by my biological clock and I needed food & sleep ... Preferably in that order. It was a free evening, so my colleges & I could dine together without having to circulate among the customers, one of the did join us, but he's a former employee anyway so while we talked shop we could relax. Our dinner was at the Hatsu Hana Japanese restaurant in the resort. I had the sashimi which was tasty, balanced, and very nicely presented. Included with it was a fair sized serving of tuna, the obvious salmon, a white fish I'd not met before that reminded me of ruby fish more than anything, and a rolled up fish that seemed cooked, but was still flexible ... no idea what this was ... it was topped with some roe that made it almost into a cup. I enjoyed the dinner. The restaurant also has a tepanyaki table that was in use. It would have been nice to have tried that, but I suspect that my companions would have been a little non-plussed by that. As it was I got a few strange looks from Donald over my choice of raw fish. He's a strange one, very inhibited and conservative which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't try pushing his world view on others. When I got to my bed I had no trouble dropping off.